Mostly Yelling #1: Mortuary Descent's Flesh-Shredding Demo Induces "Skeletonization"

Mostly Yelling is a new column that shines a spotlight on underground death metal bands whose discographies are slim, but whose impact will likely be huge.

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Crawling from the swamps of Texan death metal is Mortuary Descent, whose 2020 debut demo Skeletonization occupies the gray area between death metal and death/doom. According to vocalist Mateo Longoria, the demo was written throughout 2020 and recorded in about two months.

“Well, the demo is a good chunk of the songs we’ve written as a band since we all got together in 2020,” said Longoria. “We had recorded and released our first single Earthwide Extinction back in June and decided to spend the rest of the year perfecting our other songs and getting ready to record an EP to end our first year as a band. The recording process of the Skeletonization demo took a little under two months, and we had released a single in November to promote the release.”

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Skeletonization creeps into your speakers with the ghostly synths of its title track before charging from the mist to drag you down to hell. As “Skeletonization” reaches the slow-churning depths of its darkness, “Preyed/Killed” kicks off with burning grooves that only pick up the pace before dissolving to a broken choir right at the end.

Then there’s “Causa Mortis”, the demo’s longest song, whose use of samples and death doom riffs that feels like it finally reaches the horrible innermost chambers the previous two tracks were driving toward. Mortuary Descent ends Skeletonization with “Prisoner of War”, which feels like the most all-guns-blazing death metal track on the demo by a long shot. If you’re in the mood to have your head ripped clean off, this is one that’s going to do it.

“It’s hard to pick a favorite off the demo because I love everything me and the guys wrote on it, but I guess if I had to pick a personal favorite it would be ‘Causa Mortis’,” said Longoria. “As a band we try to make music that all death metal fans can enjoy and we all agreed we needed something slow and doomy.”

Despite having released Skeletonization on December 30th, Mortuary Descent is already plotting their 2021 releases. The band said they’re hoping to release a second demo, as well as a handful of splits with their fellow Texas-based death metal bands. Given the sheer amount of fantastic death metal to come out of the state in recent years, it’s safe to assume whoever Mortuary Descent chooses very likely rules.

“The only thing that’s certain is that we’re definitely going to take advantage of this pandemic and lack of shows to grind it out this year and prepare ourselves for our debut full length,” added Longoria.

—Greg Kennelty

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Skeletonization is out now on all streaming platforms and is available digitally on Bandcamp. Cassette and CD versions of Skeletonization are available through Life After Death.